Wind Developer Goes To Court After Opponents Delay Project

A wind developer has obtained
a court order blocking private property owners from accessing their own land
that lies within the blasting zone for the project.

Georgia Mountain Community
Wind went to court last week after opponents of the project moved within the 1,000
foot safety zone and delayed a scheduled blast.

Ritchie Berger is the lawyer
for Georgia Mountain Community Wind. He says Daniel FitzGerald, his son and
other people were on the site last week to stall work on the project.

"So we needed the court to
become involved simply for safety purposes to make sure that people stayed
outside the blast safety zone just for the brief period of time that you set up
and discharge the explosives and that is simply between 3 and 5 pm Monday and Friday," he said.

Luke Snelling is with
Energize Vermont, a group opposed to large-scale wind projects. He
says it's unusual for a court to bar people from using their own property.

"It sort of blows me away that we're letting
people - as long as they're building renewable energy - throw property rights
out the window and frankly let them abuse their neighbors," Snelling said.

Renewable energy developer
David Blittersdorf owns a majority stake in Georgia Community Wind. The company
wants the four turbine project operating by the end of the year in order to
qualify for a federal grant.